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[Craftling]

I was watching a woodworker build some beds when he ran out of wood. He then proceeded to start idling.
This left me wondering if it would be possible for dwarves to have initiative. Basicly so that they go cut down a tree when they need wood instead of waiting for you to order them to do it.

[Pilsu]

It's your job to manage it all though. Dwarves wandering outside and getting more stuff on their own would get irritating, fast.

[Craftling]

Maybe if it just applies for things like cutting wood when they need it and butchering animals before they go rotten?

[Megaman]

the entire idea of making a fortress is using nothing but your wits to make it a smooth working machine. So no.

[atomfullerene]

Nah, properly arranged initiative would be great.  I mean, just look at how convenient auto-fish processing is.  I think it would work best if somewhat controllable by the player though.  In the instance mentioned, for example, the carpenter would put out a job order for wood instead of cutting it himself (if he wasn't a wood cutter, that is) and the cutter would go to an area you had designated as suitable for cutting wood (IE, a protected woodlot, not zombie elephant land)   And most importantly he would remember his job and get back to it when the time was right, not cancel, spam messages about missing materials, or block up the workshop until it was done.

[Norseman]

^ I absolutely agree. It's just tedious to have to specifically get intermediate products in order to get finished products. Any finished product should implicitly create orders for the raw materials and intermediate labor necessary to create it. I should be able to order a steel drawbridge and, provided I have flux, trees, iron ore, and the appropriate workshops and furnaces, the game should work it out as follows:

Make a steel drawbridge. If not enough steel is available, make steel.
Make steel. If not enough pig iron is available, make pig iron. If not enough coke is available make coke.
Make pig iron. If not enough coke is available, make coke. If not enough flux is available, inform player. If not enough iron is available, make iron.
Make iron. Smelt hematite, limonite, or magnetite. If no ore is available, inform player.
Make coke. If not enough wood, coal, or lignite is available, cut wood.
Cut wood. If there are no trees, inform player.

Once we have a better trade system and colonies and such, all the player informing actions could be replaced by giving those caravans orders, and making trade goods to trade to them (with the player's permission and guidance as necessary). This way, no matter what, whatever the player asks for will be done. It may take a long time if the economy isn't very efficient and wealthy, but it will get done. You can order a steel drawbridge, and, even if you lack all of the necessary raw materials, your workers can make trade goods to build it. You would only need to make sure you designed the fortress efficiently, you wouldn't need to pay attention to frustratingly trivial details.

[Pilsu]

Making the game pretty much play itself is not a development goal.

[Norseman]

If you call repetitively and routinely doing the same action without thinking or creating "playing", then making the game play itself basically is a development goal. See standing production orders and return of the guild masters on the eternal suggestion voting, (the top 10 of which Toady has said he will work on).

I don't agree that issuing an order cut down trees because my carpenters need it and are afraid to ask for it is playing. I consider that work that I have to do in order to play.

[Trouserman]

If you're not proactive about resource management, this system will slow to an absolute crawl.  You would be better off advocating for stockpiles that spawn jobs when stocks fall below some threshold.  Under this suggestion, job requests are not spawned until the stocks are exhausted, which prevents efficient pipelining.

[Joseph Miles]

If it had an Init toggle I'd be all for it.